Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Hen Chronicles: It's early to bed and late to rise for our flock


Our three hens must have been particularly well-rested when they got up at dawn.

Credit the winter solstice.

The shortest day of the year came and went quickly yesterday, followed by the longest night. As a result, Snow, Nellie and Hope were up and about for a paltry nine hours on Monday.

“The girls” didn't emerge from the coop until 7  a.m. yesterday, and they put themselves to bed about 4 p.m. (They always head into the coop on their own at dusk.) They were still awake a few minutes later when I worked my way back to the coop to lock them in, but they had settled down for the night, side by side on their roost. Assuming they nodded off by 5 p.m. or so, they were in slumberland for a full 14 hours, until they finally roused themselves at 7 o’clock this morning.

That's a lot of shut-eye. If you're designed to hang out with the sandman from dusk until dawn, as chickens are, there’s no risk of sleep deprivation at this time of year.

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